The electronics manufacturer will receive another 20,000 robots before the end of 2012

Foxconn plans to replace 1 million of its human factory workers in China with robots, and the first 10,000 have already been installed.

At least one Foxconn factory in China has received 10,000 robots for the purpose of replacing human workers. These robots, which were manufactured in house and are called "Foxbots," are capable of doing simple tasks like lifting, making selections and placing items where they belong. They will act much like assembly line robots.

Last year, Foxconn President Terry Gou said he wanted to replace 1 million factory workers in China with 1 million robots. This was likely due to the number of problems Foxconn has had with human employees over the years.

The company came under fire earlier this year when The New York Timespublished a massive article on the working conditions of Foxconn factories. Apple was also targeted because the report mentioned Apple's lack of action when receiving reports on these poor working environments and overtime/pay issues.

Foxconn gave employees a pay boost earlier this year and is cleaning its act up slowly but surely to comply with audits.

But it seems Foxconn just doesn't want to deal with human employees at all anymore. While it will take a long time to replace all 1 million workers with 1 million robots, the electronics manufacturer will receive another 20,000 robots before the end of 2012 -- bringing its total to 30,000 for the year. Foxconn hopes to continue increasing this number over the coming years.

China, pre Deng Xioping's 1980s reforms, had nothing but rice paddies and cow dung. Now look at it. Swash is right. Only an idiot would think those hundreds of millions of people that've swarmed the city don't obviously consider the city and its factories preferable to the rice paddies. For a lot of legal reasons, it'd even be easier for them if they did go back. But they choose to stay. Consumer spending in China is booming; do you see Apple stores, legit or not, sprouting up all over what is the equivalent of pre-Deng China, North Korea? No, you do not.

I know a lot of my fellow pampered Westerners would like if, somehow, a country could go straight from cow dung and rice paddies to a wine-sipping 30-hour work week, iPhone 5 in every pocket, metrosexual-filled society afraid to gets its hands dirty. Stalin and Mao both tried it, millions died. Just doesn't work that way.

What does that have to do with anything? If anything, it reinforces Tony's point. He's selling a body part, like an idiot, not for food, housing, or anything else necessary for a basic standard of human living. He sold it to acquire a 100% luxury item.

"This is about the Internet. Everything on the Internet is encrypted. This is not a BlackBerry-only issue. If they can't deal with the Internet, they should shut it off." -- RIM co-CEO Michael Lazaridis